Amazon Instant Video Comes To The iPad

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Amazon Prime members who like to rock an iPad, not the Kindle Fire, now have access to Amazon’s ever-growing collection of movies and TV with today’s launch of the Amazon Instant Video app, which just popped up this morning in the App Store for iPad. As with the desktop and Kindle tablet version, the app allows users to watch videos for free, but only if they’re already a paying member of Amazon Prime ($79/year).

The app offers over 120,000 videos from the Amazon Instant Video library, but keep in mind that’s titles for purchase or rent. Last we checked in July, Amazon’s library only offered around 18,000 streaming titles due to its varioustrickycontentdeals with the major studios.

The app’s description in the app store doesn’t cite the number of streaming titles viewable in the app, only referring to the “thousands” available, so you can bet that the number hasn’t changed significantly since last month. It also makes sense for Amazon not to spell out the size of its Instant Video Collection (streaming collection), since the number is constantly in flux.

As with iTunes, Amazon’s service also offers a TV Season Pass subscription option, which includes the handy feature of having TV shows automatically downloaded to the iPad the day after they air. And, if you pause while watching a video, then later pick it up on another device (Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or supported TV or Blu-ray player), it will continue playing where it left off.

The app is only being offered on the iPad at present, not iPhone or iPod. And it doesn’t stream to Apple TV at present. But that may only be a matter of time. After all, Apple only yesterday added Hulu Plus support to Apple TV, where it joined Netflix. Although Amazon is a fierce competitor, due to the fact that it also sells its own hardware (and may even be working on a phone!), it would raise eyebrows for Apple to selectively keep Amazon out while allowing Hulu and Netflix in.

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Crunchbase

OverviewAmazon is an e-commerce retailer formed originally to provide consumers with products in two segments. It offers users with merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers.
Operating in North American and International markets, Amazon provides its services through websites such as amazon.com and amazon.ca. It also enables authors, musicians, filmmakers, …